Workshops & Consultations

School Garden Consultation

Consultations are available to schools wishing to start a food-producing garden. Our mission and mandate includes providing the tools for replication of our programs. We will attend a meeting with the team which includes caretaking, teaching, student nutrition and admininistrative staff plus parents and/or community partners for summer care. Contact us when the team is ready to meet, and we’ll attend for a simple $60 fee. If you’re ready for some garden-based programming, and need a bit of help, we’ll attend for $150/half-day or $250 full day. Contact us with your specific needs.

School Garden Visits

The Winchester Jr. and Sr. Public School Community Garden is quite large and includes elements such as food production, season extension, composting, native meadow plants, rock learning circle, garden shed with outdoor handwashing station, raised beds, arts projects and an innovative rainwater catchment system. We are proud to host visiting classes at Winchester, which has been in operation since 2001. Class visits take place in September – October or May-June. A class visit can be a great complement to a school garden consultation, so participants get a feel for the activities and learning potential of the garden.

Contact us at info@greenthumbsto.org to schedule a class visit. Donation of $4 per student is requested. The class visit will include tasting and other garden activities, with a small seasonal take-away memento.

Worm-shops

Classroom teachers often contact us for vermicomposting support. We can usually provide a one-period/one-hour workshop for the class, introducing them to the worm bin that can be left in the classroom for the school year. Fall is a great time to start, as the worms need winter homes (they can live outdoors but only in a very active composter that does not freeze in the middle). By spring, a usable quantity of vermicompost will have been produced. However, a worm bin can be started anytime during the school year.

Each worm workshop is tailored to the age/grade. Students will be familiarized with the how and why of vermicomposting. Our lesson plan for the workshop contains curriculum links to each grade level, eg. needs of animals, recycling, habitats and communities, biodiversity, and soils/composting. The worm bin is available on a deposit basis to classrooms. For example, a workshop may cost $100 (depending on travel time and number of students) and the bin can be left in the class for an additional $50 deposit. If the worm bin is returned in good condition at the end of the year, the $50 deposit is returned. Ongoing advice on care and feeding, as well as tips on harvesting the final product, are included in the workshop fee. Multiple workshops in one school are encouraged and will be given a discounted bulk price.